Winthrop’s players, brought together by their unique stories, belonged on NCAA stage
It would feel a bit strange to dwell on this singular loss.
It would feel a bit strange to synthesize this game’s ups and downs — even though those ups and downs, those runs and lulls, were notably felt on Friday night in the Farmers Coliseum in Indianapolis, where 12-seeded Winthrop (23-2) fell to 5-seeded Villanova (17-6), 73-63, in the first round of the 2021 NCAA tournament.
It would feel a bit strange, too, to merely repeat all that Winthrop has accomplished this year, no matter how impressive winning 21 straight games is, and no matter how rare making program and Big South history tends to be.
On Friday night and in the earliest hours of Saturday morning — at the end of a season that saw this Winthrop team play in front of a national audience several times with no fans physically in the gym; at the end of a season that was borne from the heartbreak of a COVID-disrupted ending to the season before it; at the end of a season that, for a moment, felt destined to be immortalized alongside that 2006-07 one that people in Rock Hill and across the country still talk about — it feels a bit strange to attempt to put this season, in its totality, into words at all.
So instead of trying to do that head-on, let’s talk about the players in this game’s context and see what that can tell us about this team, this season and its painfully early end at the NCAA tournament.
On Friday night, Winthrop’s scoring began with Micheal Anumba, the junior guard who was born in Italy and who was once considered one of the top prep players in all of Europe. Head coach Pat Kelsey compelled him to Rock Hill, and he’s been a defensive centerpiece ever since.
Then came a layup from Chase Claxton, a forward who confounded a lot of college scouts — but not Winthrop’s — because of his defensive prowess but undersized build. This year, the sophomore finished second in the voting for Big South for Defensive Player of the Year.
Later, for a moment in the first half, the game looked like it would turn into the DJ Burns show: The Rock Hill native, who left home to play at Tennessee only to come back last year, ignited a 10-0 run that gave Winthrop its first of two leads all game. He did so by scoring on post-ups, which created space for others to work. Others like Russell Jones Jr., the 5-foot-8 sophomore who had been underrated his whole life because of his size; others like Adonis Arms, who rose from the Division II ranks and became a vital piece to Winthrop’s offense this year; and others like Kyle Zunic, another player born outside of America (Australia) who, like Anumba, became a starter and a central part of Winthrop’s team.
Charles Falden, who’d intently waited and worked for his shot to regularly start as a senior, got going in the second half on Friday night. So did Chandler Vaudrin: The 6-foot-7 point guard, who was named the 2020-21 Big South Player of the Year, headlined this scrappy team going into the tournament. His story of going from the D2 level to the top of mid-major basketball seemed to symbolize the chip-on-its-shoulder attitude this team wore on its proverbial sleeve.
Despite the score, by the end of the game Saturday morning, it was clear: This unheralded group — connected by their unique stories and unconventional paths to Rock Hill — belonged out there in Indianapolis. It belonged on the court with a program that has won two national championships in five years and with a future Hall of Fame coach.
And that’s pretty cool.
Sure, Winthrop’s season will be remembered because of the records that were broken and the titles that were won. That’s what records are for.
But it shouldn’t get lost that these unique players, with their unique stories, are the ones who made this Winthrop season as special as it was in the first place.
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